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Ludwig’s Education
Mia started writing to Ludwig the next day as soon as she heard Chloe’s story.
“He’s probably busy with a lot of things, but it’s better to have him here. Hmm… That makes me think. Wasn’t he also Bel’s teacher? I should ask him to teach her how to do math too. He’s going to be here for a while.”
She added “please help Bel in her studying” to her letter and sent it out. Again, Grandmother Mia was passionate about education. After that, she got ready to leave the island and went to the town where Chloe said the Forkroad caravan was parked to see her father. Marco would be resting there for a while, as luck would have it. If Mia wanted to talk to him, now was the time.
As she was leaving, Bel asked, “Um, Mia-neesama, can I go with you?”
“Oh, why would you want to do that? I don’t think anything exciting will happen.” “I want to be there when your heroic actions save the day! I’d remember something like that for the rest of my life. I want to see it for myself.”
“I don’t think there will be any actions or heroing, but let me think…” Mia crossed her arms.
Merchants and math go together like peanut butter and jelly. If she got to see real businesses, it might make her want to learn more.
Grandma Mia loved learning so much that she couldn’t get enough of it.
“You can come with us.”
So, the two of them left together and went to the town where the Forkroads were staying.
“Lord almighty, Your Highness…”
When Mia walked into Marco Forkroad’s inn room, he looked at her with wide eyes and said, “What are you…? You didn’t have to.”
He quickly tried to get out of bed, but she stopped him by putting her hand up.
“I’m glad to see you’re getting better,” she said with a soft smile. “How are you feeling?”
“So you talked to my daughter, right? I’m sorry,” Marco said, lowering his head, “but it’s not that important. I just put in a little too much effort. Nothing that would make Your Highness want to pay a personal visit.”
“Stop being so humble, Sir Marco. I want to be here, so I am. We can’t say enough about how important you are to the kingdom. You are literally the only thing that keeps us alive,” she said. Then, her smile became a bit more childlike. “On top of that, you’re the father of a close book friend of mine. If you’re sick, I can’t have fun talking with her, which is no fun at all.”
“Your Highness…” Marco bowed very low to her. “Your kindness is deeply valued. If there’s anything I can do for you, please let me know. I’m here to help. Really, Your Highness, it’s not that big of a deal. I’m just having problems with my job.”
“I heard, though, that someone is trying to hurt you. You were hurt, right? Have they used violence? Don’t tell me they hired robbers or something!”
“No, no, it’s nothing like that,” Marco quickly said, shaking his head. Mia looked at him with a confused frown. Just then…
“Sir Marco, Her Highness is smart and observant. I think it would be very helpful for you to explain what’s going on with your company right now.”
A familiar voice floated into the room. Mia turned around and saw her loyal servant standing in the doorway. “Ah, Ludwig,” she said. She said in a happy voice, “I’m glad you made it.”
She was starting to worry that she wouldn’t get anywhere with Marco alone, so hearing that her troops had arrived was a huge relief.
“I’m so sorry to keep you waiting, Your Highness,” Ludwig said, bowing deeply from the waist. He then looked at Marco. “All right… If you find it hard to talk openly about the details of your business, it might be easier for me to make assumptions instead. If that’s the case, I ask that you just listen for now.”
He touched his glasses.
“First, let me clear up a misunderstanding that Her Highness just brought up. Disputes between traders can sometimes lead to the hiring of bandits and direct acts of violence, but this doesn’t happen very often at all. It almost never happens at big companies like Forkroad & Co.,”
Mia tilted her head. “Oh, that’s true?”
“Yes, because people who do wrong will get what they deserve. A person who has been hurt by a crime has the right to ask the government to help. Also, big businesses usually have security steps in place. So, using direct violence is a bad idea because it is not only dangerous but also easy to stop.”
“I see. That makes sense.”
“Merchants have special ways to attack in their field. Let me come up with one… Ah, lowering prices too much to hurt a competitor in the market would be easy to understand,” Ludwig said as he adjusted his glasses. When Marco heard his answer, he grimaced in pain.
“Huh? Bringing down prices?” asked a confused Bel.
Ludwig gave her a quick glance and chuckled. “I can see that was too hard for Miss Bel to understand. Hmm…” He thought for a while before he spoke again. “Well, how about this? Miss Bel, let’s say you see two kinds of baked goods being sold. They are both the same size and taste, but one costs one copper and the other two. Which one would you choose?”
“Huh? Well, I guess the one that costs a penny.”
“Right. As a customer, it makes sense to think that. You would get the one that costs less. That’s why you can hurt an enemy merchant’s business by dropping your prices below theirs and getting people to buy your goods instead of theirs. This is a typical way to fight in merchant wars.”
To put things in perspective, what Ludwig said was just common sense. Even Mia knew what he was talking about.
“When this method is used in a malicious way, it’s possible to ignore profit margins totally and sell things at prices that are too low. For example, something bought for one silver can be sold for one copper.”
“Huh? But why would you want to do that? You’d just lose money.”
Ludwig answered with a serious shake of the head. “The point—and it’s a very good point—is that a wealthy merchant with enough financial muscle can crush all his competitors…and monopolize the market.”
While Ludwig was giving Bel his Business 101 lesson, Mia munched on the sweets Marco had set out.
Hm… I’ve never seen this kind before. I wonder if he got these from another country. This black paste seems to be made of beans, and it has a taste that is both sweet and cool. I think this would go well with some cream.
Mia the Sweets Connoisseur’s eyes were sparkling.